Minimally invasive surgery (MIS) is performed through natural body openings or through small surgical incisions. MIS allows access to difficult-to-reach anatomy, minimizes trauma to the patient, and can result in shorter hospital stays and reduced pain. Endoscopic sinus surgery, neurosurgery, spinal surgery, arthroscopic and laparoscopic surgeries are all examples of minimally invasive surgeries.
Image-guided coronary navigation provides the medical practitioner with a visual “roadmap” of the patient's anatomy together with the position of an inserted medical instrument, such as a guidewire, catheter, balloon, stent, or other device.
Currently image-guided coronary navigation is done manually by the practitioner. Using repeated injections of contrast to enable capture of a progression of angiograms, the practitioner navigates a guidewire across the stenosis and then advances a balloon or other device to the treatment site. Roadmaps are difficult to use for cardiology due to the motion of the heart, therefore an overlay of previous injections is not currently used for coronary applications.
The present invention provides a method and system for advancing a guidewire or other device within the coronary tree using a roadmap image (roadmap). Several advantages are thereby obtained, including:
For the patient, there is a marked reduction in the use of contrast agents, thereby preventing renal damage and enhancing the ability to treat patients with multiple lesions in one session. Furthermore, there is a dramatic reduction in the amount of the patient's exposure to x-rays.
For the physician, automated wire positioning enhances his or her ability to treat the disease effectively by faster, more accurate deployment of the guidewire and/or medical device. Furthermore, in cases where the guidewire and/or medical device is positioned with an automatic positioning system, the deployment can be done faster and more accurately and with closed loop control.
Other objects and advantages of the present invention will become apparent after reading the present specification and reviewing the accompanying drawings.